Pilot-Less Planes Might Become A Reality Before Driver-Less Cars

A
piece in this week’s Economist looks at
developments in pilotless planes and goes on to claim that
autonomous civil aircraft could be flying before cars go
driverless.

It is potentially a huge new market. America’s aviation
regulators have been asked by Congress to integrate unmanned
aircraft into the air-traffic control system as early as 2015.

Some small drones are already used in commercial applications,
such as aerial photography, but in most countries they are
confined to flying within sight of their ground pilot, much like
radio-controlled model aircraft.

Bigger aircraft would be capable of flying farther and doing a
lot more things.

Pilotless aircraft could carry out many jobs at a lower cost than
manned aircraft and helicopters — tasks such as traffic
monitoring, border patrols, police surveillance and checking
power lines.

They could also operate in conditions that are dangerous for
pilots, including monitoring forest fires or nuclear-power
accidents. And they could fly extended missions for search and
rescue, environmental monitoring or even provide temporary
airborne Wi-Fi and mobile-phone services.

Some analysts think the global civilian market for unmanned
aircraft and services could be worth more than $50 billion by
2020.

What is unlikely, of course, is that passengers will accept being
flown around in a pilotless plane any time soon. But this
technology could allow for commercial jets to fly with just a
single pilot.
Read the whole piece.